--Difficult to get enthused about this. Minnnesota, a member of a BCS conference, has hired yet another coach with zero BCS head coaching experience. Kill's winning "at every level of football" is irrelevant because he has zero experience at this level. Does winning a high school state championship decades ago mean anything in the Big Ten? Does beating a Tim Brewster team qualify someone to lead Minnesota's program?
--More importantly, the critical objective of the program--to fill the stadium--is not advanced with this hire. Minnesota football looks increasingly like a Mickey Mouse operation.
To your first point, winning at every level is only irrelevant if you never continue to coach at higher levels. He isn't some high school coach who had success. The guy has built three college into really good programs within their conferences and then progressively went to a higher brand of football. The next logical step for Jerry Kill is the Big 10.
It isn't that much different than Jim Harbaugh at San Diego before going to Stanford. He never proved he could coach at the Division 1 level (and don't give me his name, etc., there are a lot of former NFL Qbs who would be terrible coaches).
Mark Dantonio built his name and coaching credentials by coming up through the ranks, Brian Kelly, Nick Saban, etc.
I agree, Mike Grant's success at Eden Praire is irrelevant, but if Mike Grant went on to win at St. Johns, and then win at UMD and finally win at Miami (OH), it would seem kind of likely that the guy could coach at the U.
To your last point about selling tickets, well that isn't very business savy if you are really concerned about the U selling tickets. The best way for the U to sell tickets is to win games and to hire someone who will win games. If they hired Chris Petersen and didn't improve, TCF would be empty. If they hired Childress and he won, the place would be full. I'm not saying that you have to think Kill will win games, but the fact that he won't initially energize the fan base shouldn't really matter.
